Well, let's see here...
For me, it began with the Apple Model II, IIe, and II+, the Commodore PET, VIC 20, C64, and C128, learning how to program things in BASIC. I ran the school computer club - which I found, learning the way of the bit and byte, did pay a few dividends. Being the classic nerd in high school (complete with broken glasses and highwater trousers with Converse tennis shoes), girls never gave me the time of day. But when it came time for them to step into the computer lab and learn something, I was everyone's favorite person.
I guess that's the plight of every nerd.
Well, I joined the Army and that got me into the tech world proper, accessing systems, many of which were built in the 70's and 80's. Most notably, it was a DEC VAX system with Zenith ZDS Z-100 terminals. I actually never saw anything IBM until I started working on PC's in the Army in the 90s. I saved up a few bucks and bought one of these from a fellow soldier that was PCS'ing - a SIIG MiniSys 286. It was a sweet little rig - had a 7" display - all of which I could pack into a gym bag (which I still actually have and use) when I had duty or would go downrange/to the field/deploy/etc:
But I killed it because I made the mistake of plugging the power supply connector into the keyboard port (both were 5-pin DIN connections). I replaced it with a portable - a Packard Bell Diplomat, a 386SX with 4MB of RAM. I replaced the hard drive in the thing and force-fed it an installation of DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11. I still have the machine and it still does work! I even took it on parachute jumps, well-packed. It still has a copy of Norton Utilities,
Bar Games, and I think the original
Leisure Suit Larry.
Oh, and I had an old MFM hard disk drive as a doorstop...that was comical.
When I got out, I had one job where the computers on the floor were old school IBM Model 80's. We even had an old Model 70 portable that we were using as a bridge for ethernet and token ring networks. I snagged one to build up a deployment server (which I guess I wasn't supposed to have at first, until my employer learned I was doing desktop builds in 58 minutes).
After all that, well, it's pretty much unimpressive - PC's, networks, the same story that we all have here now. There was a brief stint of working on systems for the Air Force that dated back to the 50's - complete with round green or white screens with hard drives the size of a washing machine. But I can't go into those details.
Anyway, that's my "annals-of-history" story. Time to give up the talking stick to another ancient to regale a tale of antiquity.
/r
spectrum.ieee.org
